


static and graves

by orphan_account



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Bad times abound for Gipsy, Gipsy is very far from okay, Jaegers (Pacific Rim), Sentient Jaegers, Survivor Guilt, she needs some hugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 19:20:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14339298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Gipsy goes down that day in Anchorage, but something else happens.The static clings to her wiring and the cables of the connpod. The gnashing teeth of her pilots still gnaw at the ends of her blades. Plate iron armor still echoes the handprints of the dead crawling through her.She wants them out, but she wants them whole.





	1. Chapter 1

Gipsy is cold and alone. The circuits of her Drift network lie dormant, occasionally sparking away down the paths of old memories.

-

_Yancy screams as he’s torn out of the Connpod and plummets into the icy ocean below, knocked unconscious from the force of impact before the cold and drowning take effect. A rage-fueled Raleigh screams and digs his blade into the Kaiju’s chest, impaling its heart and killing it, but the creature’s final shriek and flailing send a large shard of the Conn-pod’s glass into his helmet, spearing him through the brain._

_Panicked, half-broken thoughts race through Gipsy as her pilot begins succumbing to brain-death. She tries to stabilize his mind with the already-tumultuous Drift, and his panic becomes a mix of rage and pain and fear at the loss. Human emotion rips into her, a primal storm raging against a weathered bastion._

_She screams as the Drift fully severs, braindeath setting in, and without autopilot she is unable to guide them to land in hopes of saving her pilots._

_-_

She feels herself being lifted, like J-tech have come to take her to the Shatterdome. For a moment she is light, weightless- free from the binding hands of the planet beneath her- and the weightlessness lurches into sudden gravity. She can’t move, can’t see- Raleigh and Yancy were her eyes and limbs- and she tries to scream. Nothing happens.

She tries to reach her siblings- they can’t hear her. _They are gone, too, aren’t they_ , her ‘subconscious’ yowls, _they took them they took everyone kill kill kill killkillkill._

———

The Breach destabilizes not even two hours later- the energy required to send through a Category IV Kaiju shaking its structure enough to collapse it permanently- and the Apocalypse event is over. The world’s remaining Jaegers are being brought to Hong Kong- the last open Shatterdome’s location- while the UN decides what to do with the sentient superweapons.

The Category IV doesn’t make it past the Miracle Mile- the world’s Jaeger stock being dropped en masse against the final Kaiju- and they find a home in the Shatterdome for repairs.

———

Gipsy is dropped from the hooks holding her aloft and plummets into the scrapyard below, crashing amongst her dead kin in a boneless sprawl. She can hear their whispers- they’re happy to rest here, happy to sleep for the rest of time- and she blocks it out, trying to move. For a moment, she can see somewhere- a static snow-drifted land filled with dead trees and fragmented terrain- and she looks down.

Beneath her, the rotting corpse of Yancy clings to her leg, whimpering- she’s his size now, Jaeger as tall as a human- and he clings to her like she anchors him to reality. His nose is broken, body looks bitten into by sea life, and his mouth leaks water softly. His hands are colder than the ice of Anchorage’s waters, and she _screams_.

All around her, dragging themselves from the woods and the pools of abyssal liquid beneath the landscape are her other pilots- her five other pairs of pilots who died in her head- and they reach to grab onto her plating, murmuring and whimpering and gasping for air. 

Raleigh holds onto her leg, as well- he stares up at her, the massive glass blade in his visor glowing white- and the pilots begin to speak.

_Gipsyyy..._ Yancy gurgles through the ocean in his mouth, eyes glasslike, _why didn’t you save ussss?_

**I did!** She shrieks, limbs being torn and bent up by the pilots, **I did save you, please! Let me GO!**

 

They seem to relent, some of her control returning, and she snaps back into reality. The emergency cameras from her Connpod activate. The ghosts of her pilots seem to flicker in their vision. Her limbs begin to function, her core spins as it powers up, and she shakily stands.

It’s the dead of night in the Russian Jaeger yard where they dropped her, and she slowly rises up in a stumble. Her cameras allow her to see in the night, and around her the ghosts of her pilots rush through the forest. She follows them, limbs giving out briefly, and they trek onwards into the night.


	2. travel

The pilots guide Gipsy through the terrain, flickering through her vision and into the trees, some waving to her as a guide, some pointing to the unknown in the distance. She fords rivers and leaps over valleys, climbs mountains with crushing mechanical hands, strides through forests and desert and snow-buried grasslands. The ghosts of her failures urge her forwards, whisper-shrieking their encouragement and pushing her in the easiest directions.

When she overheats from the strain and crashes, they’re there in her head- hands smoothing the dents in her armor, voices in her ‘ears’ whispering things best left amongst hushed bedrooms or screaming and raging, crashing fists into plating and attempting to break her down- and she still loves each and every one of them like a parent loves their child.

She makes it back to civilization, eventually, stepping over tiny villages and avoiding crushing the townspeople. She travels miles and miles until she finds Hong Kong- her brothers and sisters awaiting her return.

_‘Home,’_ Raleigh whispers through the bleeding visor, unseen hands gently rubbing against the core in her chest, sending shivers down her synaptic relays, ‘ _safety.’_

The pilots work in perfect tune- twelve minds, one body- and she feels _indestructible_. The plating that makes her up crackles beneath with uncontained energy- a sense of sureness and purpose only felt in moments when pilots move in unison both within and without- and she strides towards the last bastion of her age.

-

Alarms ring out across the base- something _big_ is coming. Cherno Alpha, Crimson Typhoon, Romeo Blue, and Striker Eureka are deployed to defend the Shatterdome. They’re lowered gently to the ground instead of being dropped, seeing as they’re in the city and property damage is not worth the risk.

They spread out in pairs- Romeo Blue and Cherno Alpha, Crimson Typhoon and Striker Eureka- and attempt to find whatever the threat is.

-

Gipsy can see the Shatterdome in the distance, glowing with light and _purpose_ and _safety_ , and she can see her siblings being lowered into the city. Her pilots whisper in cacophonous unity- promises of help and home- and she begins to run, the shattered Connpod in her head active with the ghosts of twelve drifting souls.

The first pair she runs into are Romeo Blue and Cherno Alpha. Cherno lets out a gasp and Romeo steps back in what seems to be fear.

-

Cherno looks through the eyes of his pilots- Gipsy is here. He’s never seen her so badly damaged, her pride usually making sure that she’d always look flawless for battle. Her plating is scratched and dented, paint seemingly sandblasted, and her Connpod is destroyed- half of her face is _gone,_ revealing twin empty pilot sockets- and she leans heavily on one leg. Her hands twitch and spasm, sparks flickering between her knuckles. 

He tries to contact her- the other end of the link is static. Romeo steps forwards slowly and gets close to her, gently taking a hand in hers, and starts leading her back to base.

-

Romeo’s never seen sis look this way. She’d always prided herself on her looks, always been concerned with nicks and dents in her armor, and she was so damaged now. The bond he has with her is staticky on her end- untouched and unfeeling- and he sends reassurance through it, which seems to calm her down.

He asks his pilots to help her get back to base- she needs help, bad- and they slowly guide her stumbling steps. Cherno follows closely.

He hopes that the humans can save her- she doesn’t look healthy.


End file.
